Leaderboard

What are you working on now/recently? Most recently for indoor quads it was getting consistent with reverse 360. You can see my posts here on the channel with this as my first video asking for help trying to unlock it back in February, and compare that with my entry in Windless 2021 this month, about ten months later. You'll notice that even though I've got a back injury in the recent Windless video, I can now transition into a reverse 360 from just about any orientation/position, and I can usually stay in it as long as I want, such as until I get dizzy. Currently I'm working on cementing and solidifying all my current indoor skills. I want to make the transition from "I can do it right" over to "I don't get it wrong". What did you learn and how did you do it? What do you think your hands/body were doing (if you were successful)? For the reverse 360, there were a three big keys. The first was a "properly" adjusted sail. Even though I had earlier adjusted the kite per Watty's indoor modification guide of increasing tension and tuning bridles, I found this had a huge effect. Tighter leading edge tension made this easier, even tighter than my first adjustment attempts. Completely removing the lower leaders and lengthening the upper leaders was also essential for me. The second was the feel of the indoor sail fully loading. This requires both a mix of foot power to put air in the sail, and hand position to ensure the lines are engaged. If the sail doesn't fully engage it won't stay in reverse. Consistently getting that initial air pressure load was a big challenge for me, it doesn't come for (mostly) free like it does outdoors. The kite's previous motion and momentum, the kite's speed and drag (how it is cutting through the air versus gliding through versus catching like a parachute), springiness on the leading edge spar, the air motion in the room, these are all sail loading inputs in addition to the pilot's motion. I cannot put into words how that sail loading actually feels, and each attempt is a unique combination of conditions requiring a different input. The last was keeping that fully-loaded sail engaged the entire time. Too much foot power is wasted and can make the kite harder to control, too little and the kite drops. Keeping the kite balanced under load in reverse requires continuous adjustment. Trying to fly 360's reverse square to the ground is the easiest position, trying to maintain it at an angle is trickier, and I cannot describe it other than developing a feel for what motions and tensions cause the kite to depower. In trying to overcome the difficulties I actually spent several outdoor sessions flying reverse side-to-side while being mindful of how different loads felt, how the different loads affected speed, and how different hand positions affected it. I practiced flipping from forward flight to reverse flight in the same direction, and reversing direction. Even though all grip orientations work, because different people recommend different things I learned to fly in all the grips from a strict up/down handle orientation, a 45' grip, 90' grip, T-shape grip, all the way out to a more flailing 'freestyle' motion, and at different heights. I experimented with flying in all of them (which also helped me fly outdoor) to gain a physical feeling and better intellectual understanding. It took a lot to unlock this, but I learned a ton in the process.

Welcome to the obsession! Keep working on that inverted hover. Someday it will just click. I had the same thought about how no one seems to realize what/who they're watching! I would have been floored if I'd seen a master in action before I had quads of my own. I'm floored even now. In my case, most passersby are completely uninterested in my flying. Some are interested, but if I acknowledge them, they quickly pretend they weren't watching. A very small number will actually shout something positive. Then there was the one guy who shouted... "let it go higher, a**hole!". And finally there was the only person who's ever asked to try my kite; he was COMPLETELY hammered and unable to stay on his feet when he tried to launch 🤣